


Untitled Jim Kirk/Trip Tucker fic

by cedarrapidsgirl



Category: Star Trek (2009), Star Trek: Enterprise
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-02-01
Updated: 2012-02-01
Packaged: 2017-10-30 11:43:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,609
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/331385
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cedarrapidsgirl/pseuds/cedarrapidsgirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jim meets someone he never imagined..</p>
            </blockquote>





	Untitled Jim Kirk/Trip Tucker fic

**Author's Note:**

> I don't even know how this pairing came out. Oh, wait, yes I do. I wanted two hot guys to be together, and made it so. Obviously I fussed with canon, if you call TATV "canon".. you ENT fans know what I'm talking about.. I don't know where to go with this one, but this is what I have so far. Woot!

Jim Kirk got off the public transporter and walked quickly down the block. It was a quiet neighborhood, a person had to be pretty well off to afford a house in this part of Mill Valley. Living in the San Fransisco area was never cheap, and even the farther outlying cities were no exception. Of course, when you were a Starfleet Admiral, you could afford all the fancy shit. And Jonathan Archer was a Starfleet Admiral.

Not that he ever acted like one. Jim knew that most Admirals were all about their dress uniforms and rules and regs and meetings and looking down their noses at all the other plebes beneath them, especially cadets. But Archer-(call me Jon, he said) -wasn't that. Sure, he was commanding and bitchy sometimes and a pain in the ass when he needed to be, but Jim knew that underneath all that, Jon was just like everyone else. He knew what it was like to be a hands on Captain, cursed out by the powers that be at Starfleet, to know what you had to do, everyone else, and especially those at HQ, be damned. Jim Kirk had liked him immediately.

This was the first time Jim had been over to Archer's house since the whole Narada shindig went down. He had made a habit of going over there about once a month or so for about two years. Pike had brought up having gotten into a bit of trouble if his own when he was in the Academy, but wouldn't divulge who was with him, and just smiled a knowing smile. After some devious hacking on Jim's part, he found a few references in Pike's file, and it didn't take a genius, which he was, but that was beside the point, to make the connection that the Cadet Archer tied to Pike's disciplinary notes was the infamous Captain and now Admiral Jonathan Archer. Pike didn't order Jim to visit Archer, but when Kirk mentioned to Pike that Archer sounded interesting, Jim was not surprised when a couple days later he got a communication from Archer to meet him. But not at his office, like most Admiral/Cadet visits, no. At his house. Because Jonathan Archer didn't like playing by the rules, either.

So that's how the visits to Archer's house started. This time, it was about two months since he'd been back to Earth, and there was still another month until the Enterprise was done with repairs. After a quick visit to see his mom, Jim had spent most of the time in a small beach house in the Bahamas. The whole world seemed to want a piece of Jim Kirk. Finally, Jim had taken the advice of his attending physician, and best friend, Dr. McCoy, and got away from it all, to just be for a while. But, now, he was back here, in California, ready to get started on his first five year mission. Well, in a month. For now, he had some more relaxation planned and catching up to do.

He'd called Archer when he'd gotten back, and Jon invited him over for dinner that night, saying, “There's someone I want you to meet.” Normally Jim would be suspicious over that, as it was usually coming from a cousin or friend of a friend of a friend that wanted to set up their best girlfriends (or themselves) with now Captain James T. Kirk. But this was Jon, for God's sake. He wouldn't pull that shit on Jim, would he?

Jim guessed he'd find out soon enough, as he'd arrived on Archer's doorstep. A quick ring of the old fashioned doorbell, and the scratching of claws on a hardwood floor and the sudden thump against the door told him that his presence had been noted. A couple minutes later, the door opened a couple of inches, and the sound of a muffled voice. “Move it, Scarlett, get out of the way. C'mon, pup, get. Let the man get in the door at least, before you lick him to death.” Finally getting the door open proper, with one foot trying to hold back his excited beagle, Jon smiled at Jim. “Come on in, before the vicious guard dog attacks. You know how rough Scarlett can be.”

Jim grinned back as he entered the foyer, and dropped to his knees to rub and scratch Scarlett, who was excitedly barking and jumping to see him again. “How can I forget? I still have the nightmares from all the other attacks,” he said to Archer, playing along with the joke. He nuzzled with the dog's nose. “It's good to see you again little girl, but I honestly didn't think I'd ever see you on the Enterprise. That was a welcome surprise.”

Archer smiled at that. “Not only welcome for me, but for your new Chief Engineer as well. I don't think Commander Scott would have been too happy to see me if I'd found out he'd left Delta Vega without returning something of mine that he lost."

“I heard there was a lot of grovelling and foot kissing from Scotty at your first meeting with him after we got back.” Jim said, pulling himself up and following Jon into the living room, Scarlett at his heels.

“Among other parts of the anatomy, yeah.” the Admiral laughed at the memory. “But, I got my dog back, and Scotty claims he learned his lesson about arguing with his superiors, so all is forgiven. You want a beer?” He gestured to the kitchen, which was suddenly very noisy as something metal hit the floor.

“Shit!” A male voice said loudly.

Jon raised his eyebrows, and hollered. “You okay in there, Trip? Sounds like you're being attacked by my frying pan. Raise the shields, and don't make me fire my phaser in the house.”

Jim was wondering what the hell was going on in the kitchen, and was going to ask as such when Jon went to go see what was up. After some muffled conversation, he came back a couple minutes later, with one last “Okay, I'm going, I'm going!” and a couple of beers, and sat down on the couch across from Jim. Handing him a drink and taking a pull from the other bottle, Jon looked over at Jim, who was sitting on the love seat with Scarlett by his side.

“Everything okay in there? It sounded kind of dangerous.” Jim said.

Jon laughed. “He says everything's under control, and man, for my kitchen's sake, I hope so.” He took another drink of his beer, and continued. “That's who I said I wanted you to meet, when I talked to you earlier. An old friend of mine from way back, my former Chief Engineer, Starfleet Commander Charles Tucker.”

Jim tipped his head, trying to remember the name. What had he called him earlier? Trip? In the two years he'd been friends with Archer, Jim had met most if not all of the former Captain's main Bridge Crew. The name sounded familiar, but Jim couldn't place it.Then finally, something clicked in his head. "Commander Charles Tucker? As in, the Commander Tucker? Also known as dead Commander Tucker? If I remember from my basic Starfleet history class, wasn't he killed in the line of duty in an explosion on your ship? The man who the 'Tucker Hall of Engineering' was named after? "

Jon hesitated just a bit, and it didn't escape Jim. There was a couple moments of silence, as if Jon was debating on exactly what to reveal. Finally, he spoke. "Yeah, that's him. It's..complicated, Jim. You know there's things that Starfleet doesn't discuss, can't discuss. You know what I mean, right?"

Jim sat back, slightly stunned. Now it was coming back. Commander Charles Tucker the Third, or "Trip", was killed in action on board the first Enterprise, trying to save everyone from some rogue aliens. The details were fuzzy, even back in his classes there was some shroud of mystery whenever the subject was brought up. Even on one of the rare times that Jim tried to bring it up with the Admiral, Jon had looked uncomfortable with the topic, and Jim had surmised that even after all the time that had passed, it was still a very tender subject. Trip was his best friend, after all.

Who was now leaning against the kitchen doorway, looking right at him.

Jim knew he shouldn't stare, but he couldn't help himself. Not only was the legendary Trip Tucker he had seen pictures of in his history classes standing in front of him, he was staring right back. And smiling. And had apparently made dinner for all of them, as evidenced by the flour all over his jeans and t-shirt, and from the earlier sounds coming from the kitchen.

"Ah. Trip. We were just talking about you. Did you and the chicken survive the ruckus in there? It sounded like feeding time for some of Dr. Phlox's creatures." Jon rose from the couch, as did Jim from his seat, and Trip straightened up from the door frame and joined the other two men in the living room. "Jim, I'd like you to meet Commander Charles Tucker the third, and Commander, this here is the newest Captain of the newest Enterprise, James Kirk."

Jim reached out and shook the strong hand offered to him. "It's a pleasure to meet you, sir, and please, call me Jim." He couldn't help but be a little bit intimidated by him, even if he was in his civilian clothes which were splattered with cooking materials.

Tucker smiled broadly, his blue eyes lit up happily. "Jim Kirk, huh? Well, it's a pleasure to have finally met you too, and please, call me Trip and you don't need to call me 'sir' right now. It's been a really long time since anyone's called me sir, and honestly, I'm not even sure if I'm in Starfleet anymore, officially." He looked over at Jon with that line, and the Admiral just laughed and shrugged back. 

Jim relaxed. "So you're glad to have 'finally' met me, huh? What, has Jon been talking me up since you've been back, however long that's been?" He smiled at Archer, who just tried to look like he didn't know what Jim was talking about.

Trip replied easily. "Well, there's that, but I don't know if half of what Jon's told me is true or not, I'll have to ask you later for confirmation on some of those yarns. Also, I knew your dad pretty well."

Jim's heart twinged a little and his stomach clenched a little at the mention of his dad. Just like it always did when someone mentioned George Kirk, and a little bit of jealousy surged up, once again, someone that knew George, and George was someone Jim didn't know and never would know. But most people wouldn't know if those feelings in Jim, and he tried to cover those feelings quickly by swallowing hard and smiling.

Jon saw through Jim's smile though, and promptly changed the subject. "We can talk more about escapades later, Trip. And I know you're not immune to telling or participating in a few tales yourself. The fact that you're out here chatting up our guest means that dinner is ready?"

The smile returned. "Sure is, Capt'n,-I mean, Admiral-I mean, Jon." Archer tried not to laugh as Trip fumbled through the monikers. "Blast it, this is going to be harder than I thought. Too many years of conditioning, and having to be all formal and such." He led the other two men into the dining room. "Since Jon doesn't have any fine china, I couldn't use it. So you're getting my 2nd favorite meal on the everyday stuff."

"I only get treated to the 2nd favorite meal? Don't tell me, you're saving your favorite meal for your favorite Admiral?" Jim winks at Jon, who just shakes his head as they all sit at the table. 

"Here, Jim, start with this chicken." Actually, Archer said, passing the platter to Jim, "Trip wanted to make his favorite, blackened catfish, but I didn't really want my kitchen to have to suffer through that cooking process. I'm not sure if fried chicken was any safer. Do I dare to go in there?" Jon asked Trip, looking at the kitchen suspiciously.

"Don't worry, Capt'n-Jon, everything will be fine. I'll clean it up later. Here, Jim, have some of these. Course, I don't even know if you like hush puppies, but, the way I figure it, with good old fashioned Southern food you can't go wrong." Trip put a couple pieces of the fried food off of his plate before passing it.

Jim eagerly took some food before passing the plate onto Jon. "You're from the South? I should have asked my roommate to come along. He would be in heaven with this. He's from Georgia."

"Yeah, I was born and raised in Florida. But my parents live in Mississippi now." Jim thought he noticed a trace of something come over Trip's face, and he recognized it as the same look he himself had earlier when his father was mentioned. But it passed quickly, and Trip smiled at Jim sincerely.

"Oh, yeah, I totally forgot about Dr. McCoy, Jim." Jon stated. "You'll have to take him home some leftovers for him, if you want." 

Jim swallowed before replying. "I know he'd appreciate, Jon, he really would, but he's actually down there now, spending some time with his daughter. This is really good, sir-I mean-Trip". Jon just shook his head again and Trip laughed.

"Guess old habits die hard, huh, Jon? At least it's good to know I'm not the only one that does that." Trip grinned brightly at Jim, who couldn't help but grin back.

After an absolutely filling meal of not healthy food, the three men helped to clean up the mess in the kitchen, and even Trip wasn't sure how he got green beans in the light fixtures. Later they all sat around in the living room again, with more alcohol. A sleeping Scarlett lay next to Archer, who may or may not have gotten more than a few scraps from Trip and Jim at the table. 

"Look at her, sleeping so sound." Archer scratched at the dog's full stomach, and she snuffled and sighed, snuggling into her owner's side. "You two are spoiling her rotten."

Jim tried to pull off his best innocent look as Trip smirked into his beer bottle. "Yeah, like you don't have a history of spoiling dogs yourself. Giving Porthos cheese when you knew he shouldn't have it."

Archer didn't even try to deny it. "Okay, guilty as charged. Although, in my defense, after giving Porthos cheese, I usually paid for it later." Jon grinned. "Thank goodness for the circulatory air system about Enterprise."

"So, Trip," Jim finally got the nerve to ask, "What's next for you?"

Trip looked surprised, and for a moment Jim thought he had overstepped his boundaries. Then his expression softened. "You know, I don't really know." He drank from his bottle and looked off into the distance for a moment, before remembering that he really hadn't answered Jim's question. "I got a debriefin' on Monday morning at Starfleet command, and I guess we'll see what happens after that. I guess I'll just have to see." Trip smiled as he looked back at Jim. "I'm not used to not havin' a plan. This is going to be interesting." His smile widened into a grin at Archer, who just raised his eyebrows at his former Chief Engineer.


End file.
